The Exosome Group

Notes · 04 · 1 min read

Plant vesicles and CD63

A plant vesicle that tests negative for CD63 is behaving like a plant vesicle.

CD63, CD9 and CD81 are tetraspanin proteins used as markers for mammalian vesicles, and the antibodies sold for them are made against mammalian proteins.

Mammalian vesicle

CD63 · CD9 · CD81

Tetraspanin markers, with antibodies made against mammalian proteins

Plant vesicle

TET8 · PEN1

Candidate markers from Arabidopsis research. No marker has been agreed across plant species yet.

Identity evidence has to match the source.

Plants make their own vesicles with their own proteins. Research in Arabidopsis points to TET8, a plant tetraspanin structurally similar to CD63, and to the syntaxin PEN1 as candidate markers. They are still candidates: plant scientists have called for markers that hold across species, and none has been agreed yet.

One more distinction matters for ingredients. Vesicles released naturally by plant cells are “plant EVs.” Material recovered by blending, grinding or pressing tissue is called “plant-derived nanovesicles,” because it also carries debris from broken cells.

For a plant-derived ingredient, a sound plan names which of the two it is and matches the identity evidence to the source.